I leaned on the balcony's railings on the third floor of my wooden Chinese-style mansion. From up here, I could see everything within and beyond the town.

However, the golden-tinted barrier ruined the view of the forest in the distance. Still, it was quite a view as I could see the governor's mansion and the two clans' compounds from here.

I sighed and looked into the distance as I had been doing for weeks. Outside the walls, Body Tempering disciples were working on traps and other miscellaneous things I had prepared for the next Beast Wave.

It had been a while since I sent the letter to Song Song, and there had been no reply. So, it was safe to assume that the messaging had failed. Song Song would have noticed the strange way I acted in the letter and would have at least paid a visit. But there was no way for the enemy to know the relationship between myself and Song Song.

I had hoped the letters reached her, but I knew the chances were nonexistent. If the message hadn't reached her, then the monstrous beasts should have been fed misinformation.

I had gone through a lot of trouble preparing everything else, too. While my plan would need some luck to be successful, there were also many other factors.

The monstrous beasts might have human-like intelligence and perhaps had even learned how to speak the human language by listening to humans. However, I doubted they knew how to read. But they should have a messenger to read the letter for them.

Here's hoping they were too intelligent to just kill a human. Instead, they would force him to read their letter, at least. If somehow they had disregarded the letter they had caught from the sword, I had ensured the scout got a similar letter on him.

This experience taught me that schemes needed more than just playing around and lying to people. There was also the unstable factor of luck and coincidences to take into account.

I clenched my fist as I remembered the scout, one of the guys who acted as the Hong Clan Leader's bodyguard. I had never spoken to him or known anything about the guard, but he no doubt had a life of his own; perhaps he even had loved ones waiting for his return.

I knew nothing about the guy, and he had not wronged me. But in the end, my plan led to his death, even though the Hong Clan Leader had the right to choose who he wanted. Thankfully, he had offered his own members during the meeting, as I would have hated to send someone and sentence them to death myself.

"This is why I don't like politics," I grumbled. "I don't have the heart for it."

For all I knew, the guy could have been a monstrous murderer who liked killing cats. Or he could have been a saint. Either way, my choice was made, and even if no one would remember that man, I would do so until my time came too. Everyone would die eventually; some just went faster than others. He was already dead, and thinking about these things too much was detrimental when I was in the middle of a war.

But as I sensed a Qi Gathering Cultivator getting closer, it broke me out of my melancholic thoughts. I stared ahead and was greeted by the Hong Clan Leader looking at me with a smile.

Unlike usual, he was alone this time. He had snuck past the guards and was standing in my garden, where Speedy was staring at him with a pointed look.

I was already growing tired looking at the governor's or the clan leaders' faces so much when we had meetings. Adding more time to that clock was the last thing I wanted. Those guys were almost entirely useless when it came to the logistics of keeping a war or preparing for it.

"Clan Leader, how can I help you?" I asked, leaning on the railings and acting nonchalant, though I was prepared for any of these guys to attack me at a moment's notice.

The clan leader jumped and covered the distance from the ground to the third floor in one leap. He stepped to the edge of the railing I was leaning on and turned toward me with his ever-present smile.

"Well, I just came to give you some information you might consider useful," he said. "Before setting off, the messenger I chose knew that it was unlikely he would make it through this alive. So he volunteered to take a tracking talisman with him to roughly show us how far the monstrous beasts' perimeter is."

I almost believed his story for a second as he looked at the ground with a sad look. But then I remembered who I was talking with, and there was an almost 100% chance this guy had used some underhanded methods to get such information. Also, despite looking sad and singing the messenger's praises, the Hong Clan Leader never mentioned this "hero's" name.

Did he even know the guy's name?

Either way, if his information was accurate, it would be helpful. As the Clan Leader relayed the information to me, I adjusted some plans in my head and reacted accordingly.

If what he said was right, the monstrous beasts were far from the forest entrance, but not that far. I could work with that.

"Anyway, I hope that after the war is over, you remember that the Hong Clan were always your friends and willing to make sacrifices to see that humanity wins against the vile monstrous beasts," the Hong Clan Leader said with a serious look.

Essentially, after removing all the flowery words, he was asking for some benefits after the war. But he was barking up the wrong tree if he wanted something like that.

"I won't have much power after the war is finished since I will be gone, and someone like the governor, who was a part of the higher echelon of the Blazing Sun Sect, would have more pull around these parts," I said.

But he didn't seem to accept my decision despite wrapping my refusal in flowery language that I had learned from the Hong Clan Leader himself.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

His frown didn't sway me; I had stood against Song Song when I refuted her decisions, and her frowns came with a heavy dose of killing intent and the knowledge that she might actually follow through. Overall, the Hong Clan Head seemed more like a cat when compared to someone like Song Song.

Ultimately, the clan leader did not intend to stay mad at me; he knew he couldn't afford it. He also knew that I knew that, and he had no advantage in this negotiation. If he thought I would see the man he sacrificed as a genuine sacrifice on his part, I beg to differ. He probably didn't like the guy that much since he would never send someone he cared about on a suicide mission.

"I won't exactly have any power in Whitewall Town after this thing is over," I said, deciding not to mention the elephant in the room: whether we could even get out of this ordeal alive.

"You just have to say that the Hong Clan contributed the most, and your words would be enough," he offered.

"If at the end of this war we all come out alive, and your clan has made a significant contribution, I will make sure to remember to mention your name," I agreed, worded in a way that clarified if his clan didn't pull their weight, they wouldn't earn any compliments.

After this war against monstrous beasts was over and I was far away, the clans could do whatever they wanted against each other for all I cared. This revelation about the Hong Clan Leader would have made me think less of the man. While everyone risked death against a monstrous enemy, the Hong Clan Leader schemed against his allies.

But sadly, I already thought so little of him that my opinion couldn't plummet any further.

"Either way, I will always make sure to help my friends and scorn my enemies," I said, taking a page out of his book. I used flowery words accompanied by an ambiguous smile, and he was free to interpret it however he wished. "Your clan has sacrificed the most in this war until now. I will remember that."

"Wonderful! That is all I ever wanted," he exclaimed, his happiness masked behind a smile. "Anyway, I won't bore you any longer. I also have my duties to defend the innocent people of Whitewall Town!"

With that said, he jumped off the balcony, landing on the ground noiselessly before slipping past the guards just as easily as he had come in, moving too fast for them to see him.

“Duties to defend Whitewall Town?” I repeated his words and couldn’t help but chuckle. This was the same guy who had suggested we sacrifice all the civilians to save their own hides. “Politics is such bullshit.”

I looked into the distance at the real heroes of this war. All the Body Tempering Cultivators who worked diligently to dig holes outside the walls. They were the ones who made sure that my plans were carried out quickly and efficiently and did the work of a thousand men with modern machines.

I was about to take a page out of some famous generals from Earth and commit a bit of what might be termed war crimes.

Despite being labeled as such, the concept was still new here and the norm given the circumstances. Most people on the frontlines in this war were what in my previous world would be considered children.

The most important question was which tactics would be most beneficial in this war. Nothing was off the table, and I planned to use every method available.

“The time for politics and talking is over; now is the time for action,” I muttered, trying to hype myself up. It was easier said than done. Because if I was wrong, then there was going to be a massacre of human lives and this whole ordeal would be my fault.

...

Days passed as I waited for an attack that never came. Weeks turned into a month, and still, no devastating attack occurred. However, that only served to put me even more on edge.

On a snowy day, I sat cross-legged in a meditative position on the thawing ground in my mansion’s yard. It was cold, and snow covered everything except my mansion. I used arrays to keep the yard dry, as wetness would bother Speedy and slow my training needlessly.

Even with my eyes closed, I could sense the Qi inside me shifting, twisting, and changing. Qi from the surrounding area was absorbed into my pores and then moved to the nape of my neck, where the Spirit Roots began their work, filtering the Qi into a usable form. The whole process left a tingling sensation running down my spine. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a bit strange, like touching something with a third hand I never knew existed.

The progress was slow. Despite a month of practice, my Qi had barely increased by less than ten percent. To reach the two-star Qi Gathering stage would take about a year, give or take a few months. Even if I encountered no bottlenecks, I would be almost in my thirties by the time I reached the peak of Qi Gathering.

Physical training wouldn’t directly impact my cultivation stages like before. However, having a stronger body was always beneficial, so I continued my physical training.

The lack of significant growth didn’t dishearten me. I knew my cultivation talent was relatively average. The rapid progress during Body Tempering was due to my refined training methods, which were much better than the original Liu Feng’s.

After another round of cultivation, I stopped and took a deep breath, feeling the strain on my Spirit Roots. One couldn’t cultivate all the time, especially in the early stages when the Spirit Roots were just getting accustomed to Qi. Overusing them could cause damage, even permanent in some cases, especially when training at night in the cold, where Yin Qi from the moon could harm the Spirit Roots. It was like crushing ice with your teeth daily; you might not feel it at first but over time…

I took out a notebook and began writing down my stats. I hadn’t had the time to relax like this in a while.

Name: Liu Feng

Age: 17

Talent: C (fifty-three spirit root branches)

Cultivation: Body Tempering (nine-star) → Qi Gathering (one-star)

Strength – 9.9 → 11

Agility – 9.9 → 12

Endurance – 9.9 → 14

Qi – 1

Techniques:

- Sonic Fang Fist (Mortal Grade)

- Rushing Bull Step (Mortal Grade)

- Turtle Shell Body (Mortal Grade)

- Dancing Jade Armor (Semi-Earth Grade)

- Falling Moon Claw (Earth Grade)

Skills:

- Array Conjurer - Level 2 (Practitioner)

My endurance was still leading in growth. By now, the Turtle Shell Body Technique was no longer as helpful. At least it wasn't supposed to be, but considering the changes in Speedy... I smiled fondly thinking of him. He had grown so much since I bought him at the market.

But a sudden cold wind interrupted my thoughts as a snowstorm began setting in, the first of the winter. We were already past the middle of winter, and I hoped this ordeal would soon be over.

As the snowstorm picked up, I had to cancel the barrier protecting the mansion against snow. It would be a waste of spirit stones to keep powering it since it wouldn’t handle the weight of accumulated snow.

Suddenly, a crackling sound came from my pocket. I quickly took out a flashing talisman connected to arrays around the forest. Soon, other talismans followed, flashing in my hand.

My heart dropped, and I looked up at the building snowstorm.

During this month and a half, I wondered why the monstrous beasts hadn’t attacked. Had my plan been successful? Perhaps the letter had intimidated them, prompting a move to another region? Such assumptions were based on hopeless optimism, and I paid them no mind.

But as I stared at the snowstorm, I realized what the monstrous beasts had been waiting for. Just as we had prepared for them, they had also prepared against us.

One thing was sure: they wouldn’t have come out recklessly after waiting so long. We had to fight on their terms.

“Guards!” I called out to the two men at the gate. “Summon the governor and notify the clans. It’s time for battle!”